Engineer&#39;s leveling-rod.



R. 0. WATSON.

ENGINEER'S LEVELING ROD. APPLICATION FILED DEC. I2, 1914.

' 1,165,82 O. Patent ed Dec. 28, 1915.

ROBERT C. WATSON, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

ENGINEERS LEVELING-ROD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 28, 1915.

Application filed December 12, 1914. Serial N 0. 876,861.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT C. WA'rsoN, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Washington, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Engineers Leveling-Rods, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide a means whereby stakes to serve as guides for establishing grades in engineering operations may be set accurately and much more quickly than by the present method.

My invention not only facilitates the setting of grade stakes by an experienced leveling corps but, owing to the simplicity of the means employed, stakes may be driven to grade by unskilled laborers, practically without previous training.

Grade stakes for the guidance of construction gangs are practically always set so that the head or top of the stake is exactly on grade or an integralnumber of feet above or below it. They have been commonly set as follows: The instrument man knowing the elevation at which the head of the stake is to be placed and also the height of his instrument finds the difierence between these two elevations, and this difference should be the rod reading when it is placed upon the stake top, after the latter has been driven to its correct position. To drive the stake down to such position has required care and good judgment on the part of the driver and frequent checking by the rodman and instrument-man. There has been no visible marker to act as a guide for the stake driver who necessarily has had to exercise great care in driving lest the stake be driven down too far, in which case it would have to be pulled up and started anew. My invention provides a stationary marker to which the top of the stake is driven and the very considerable time now spent in checking the elevation of the head as the stake is being driven, is saved, and the tendency to drive the stake in too far is also avoided. It will be evident that a stake driver having a visible gage to work by can drive the stake rapidlyand accurately to its desired position whereas without such a guide the method is much slower, as explained above.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of one form of my improved rod in operative position; Fig. 2 is a perspective View of the rod with its special stake setting attachments in inoperative position; Fig. 3 is an enlarged front view of the lower part of the rod; Fig. 1 is an enlarged side view of the lower part of the rod as viewed from the right, Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a bottom view of the rod; Fig. 6 is a horizontal section on line 6-6 of Fig. 3; Fig.

7 is a perspective view of the sliding leg when withdrawn from the rod; Fig. 8 18 an enlarged horizontal section on line 88 of Fig. l; and Fig. 9 is a detail of the pivoted arm or indicator at the bottom of the rod.

In the drawings, 10 indicates the front part of the rod and 11 the back part. The rod operates in the usual manner of rods of this class, the back part 11 being free to slide up and down relatively to the front part 10, the yoke 13 fastened to part 11 and piece 11 fastened to part 10 serving to act as guides allowing free longitudinal movement but no lateral movement. The upward movement of slide 11 with respect to the front part 10 of the rod is limited by yoke 13 which will abut against the guide It which is fastened to stationary part 10. Passing through the mortised bottom of part 10 and upwardly in grooves out between parts 10 and 11 is a leg 12 freely slidable with respect to both face 10 and back 11 of the rod. The front section of the rod is of greater cross-sectionthan the back and the greater part of the groove which receives the leg 12 is cut in the face, as shown by Fig. 8. To prevent the sliding leg 12 from coming out of its groove when the sliding back 11 of the rod has been raised to the top, it is preferably provided with small auxiliary tongues 15 which fit into corresponding grooves in the front of the rod 10. The bottom of the sliding leg 12 is provided with a protector 16, the bottom of which is an oblong section of the metal plate which ordinarily covers the bottom of a leveling red but which in this case is not attached to the rod proper but to the sliding leg 12. When the sliding leg is in its inoperative position,

entirely within the rod, the lower surface.

of this bottom plate is flush with the other bottom parts of the protecting plate 17, thus insuring an accurate plane surface on the bottom of the rod for all ordinary work.

The leg 12 is prevented from sliding too freely by means of a friction block 18 which is pressed against the sliding leg by means of a leaf spring 19, a thumb screw 20 pass ing through a threaded opening in the plate 17 serving to press the spring 19 against the block 18 with any desired force and in this way determining the coefficient of sliding friction between the leg 12 and the rod proper. Thus the leg 12 may be made to slide more or less freely by loosening or tightening the screw 20.

A thin metal arm 21 is so pivoted to the rod by the bolt 22 that it maybe folded into the slot 23 so that no part of it projects when the rod is being used for purposes other than stake setting.

The engagement of a shoulder 25 on the arm 21 with a stop pin 2 1 limits the downward swinging of the arm. The pivot 22 and stop 2& are so arranged that the straight upper surface of the arm is exactly in a plane with the plane of the bottom of the rod when the shoulder 25 abuts against pin 24. Thus, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the upper edge of the extremity of the arm is at the same elevation as the bottom of the scale. To guard against arm 21 being damaged by a misdirected hammer blow, it is preferably provided with a. self-locking hinge joint 21 which permits the end of the arm to be knocked down by a blow, yet allows it to be quickly snapped back into its normal horizontal position.

The arm above described is only one of various forms in which my object may be attained. The length of the arm 21 is preferably about six inches and as the stake is driven beyond its outer end a distance of about seven inches separates the stake and leg 12 at the surface of the ground. This is a suflicient distance to insure that there is no vertical displacement of the rod due to earth movement when the stake is being driven.

In operation the rod is employed as follows: The target being properly set, the leg 12 is drawn partway out andarm 2 1 placed in horizontal position. The rod is then held vertically with plate 16 restmg on the ground, the screw 20 being adjusted so that the rod will not slide down relatively to the leg by its own weight alone, a slight additional downward pressure of the hands on the sides of the rod beingv necessary. The rodman will continue to slide the rod down relatively to the leg 12 until the instrument-man indicates that it is in the correct position. The indicating arm 21 will then be at the level to which the top of the stake is to be driven. The axman may then drive the stake rapidly down until its top registers with the indicator and the stake will then be in its final position. The time required is comparatively short. If by any chance the rodman slides the rod down too far he may put his foot on the top of plate 16, holding the leg 12 stationaryand draw the rod up again without loss of time.

Having described my invention what is claimed is: V I j 1. The combination with a leveling rod, of a stake level indicator adapted to project laterally therefrom, and adjustable means :for supporting said indicator at any desired distance above the ground to indicate the level to which a stake is to be driven.

2. The combination with a leveling rod, of a laterally projecting indicator at the zero point thereof, and an extensible member arranged to rest on the ground surface and support the indicator at any desired an indicator projecting laterally from said rod.

4;. The combination with a leveling rod, of an adjustable supporting means and a horizontally disposed. marker at the zero point of the rod, said marker having a selflocking hinge joint permitting the outer portion thereof to be moved vertically with respect to the inner portion.

5. The combination with a leveling rod, of an adjustable supporting means and a marker at the zero point of the rod which is adapted to be disposed horizontally to indicate the elevation of the zero point or which is adapted to be folded into the rod when not in use.

6. The combination with a leveling rod, of an adjustable supporting means and a projecting marker slidable with said rod relatively to said supporting means, whereby the elevation of the zero point of the rod above the ground is indicated.

7. The combination with a leveling rod, of an extensible member slidably contained therein adapted to rest on the ground surface, and means on the rod for frictionally engaging said slidable member to supportsaid rod.

8. The combination with a leveling rod, of an indicator at the zero point thereof, an extensible member slidably contained therein, a friction block spring pressed against from for the purpose set forth, said indisaid member, and an adjusting means adaptcator being foldable into said recess. 10 ed to cooperate With said spring to vary In testimony whereof I aflix my signature the pressure of said block against said menu in presence of two Witnesses.

5 her. ROBERT C. WATSON.

9. The combination With an engineers Witnesses: leveling rod having a recess of an indicator M. H. BRAKHAGEN, thereon adapted to project laterally there- ARTHUR L. BRYANT.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for flve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

